Roberto Gargarella is Professor of Constitutional Theory and Political Philosophy at Universidad de Buenos Aires and a researcher for CONICET in Buenos Aires and the Christian Michelsen Institute in Norway. He received a John Simon Guggenheim grant in 2000 and a Harry Frank Guggenheim grant in 2002-3 and has published on issues of legal and political philosophy, as well as on U.S. and Latin American constitutionalism.

Latin America possesses an enormously rich constitutional history, one that has only recently become the subject of scholarly inquiry. As noted legal theorist Roberto Gargarella contends, contemporary constitutional and political theory has a great deal to learn from this history, as Latin American constitutionalism has endured unique challenges that have not appeared in other regions. Such challenges include the emergence of egalitarian constitutions in inegalitarian contexts; deliberation over the value of "importing" foreign legal instruments; a long-standing exercise of socio-economic rights; issues of multiculturalism and indigenous rights; and substantial experience with "unbalanced" versions of the system of "checks and balances." Moreover, Latin American nations have endured numerous and frequent constitutional changes over the past two centuries.
In this landmark book, Gargarella provides a broadly comparative history of Latin American constitutionalism, informed by constitutional theory. He organizes the book across four major historical periods of Latin American legal history, infusing this history with a discussion of the ideas of thinkers including Juan Bautista Alberdi, Francisco Bilbao, Sim?n Bol?var; Juan Ega?a, Jos? Gonz?lez Vigil, Victorino Lastarria, Juan Carlos Mari?tegui, Juan Montalvo, Jos? Mar?a Mora, Mariano Otero, Manuel Murillo Toro, Jos? Mar?a Samper and Domingo Sarmiento. Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, this book is truly a milestone in the study of Latin American constitutionalism.

Preface
Chapter 1: The first Latin American Constitutions (1810-1850)
Chapter 2: "Fusion constitutionalism": the liberal-conservative compact at the second half of the 19
Chapter 3: The material basis of the Constitution
Chapter 4: The limits imposed by the past upon the new Constitutions
Chapter 5: The crisis of the post-colonial constitutional model. Positivism and revolution, at the beginning of the new Century
Chapter 6: Constitutionalism at the mid-20
Chapter 7: Grafting social Rights onto hostile Constitutions
Chapter 8: Contemporary constitutionalism I. Constitutions in internal tension
Chapter 9: Contemporary constitutionalism II. The "engine room" of the Constitution
Chapter 10: What have we learned in 200 years of constitutionalism? For an egalitarian constitutionalism
Notes
Bibliography
Index